Henry's piety was no mere form. ‘There was not in the world a more pure, more honest, and more holy creature’ (Polydore Vergil, p. 70, Camden Soc.). Strongly attached to his family, and unswervingly faithful to his queen, who from the first exercised commanding influence over him, he carefully watched over the education of his half-brothers, Jasper and Edmund Tudor, and was morbidly anxious about the morals of his household. Yet his petty inquisitorial ways did not prevent him from inspiring real devotion among his domestics. He was so liberal that he alienated his domains and wasted his revenues in foolish presents ({sc|Whethamstede}}, i. 248–52); so merciful that it was hard to persuade him that robbers and traitors ought not to go scot-free. His excessive shyness and modesty sometimes verged towards the ludicrous. His strongest expletive was ‘Forsooth and forsooth,’ though when very emphatic he would swear ‘By St. John!’ He hated cruelty and brutal punishments, and was often plunged into fits of silence and ecstatic visions in which the age discerned something miraculous (Blakman, ‘De Virtutibus et Miraculis Hen. VI,’ in Otterbourne, ed. Hearne, pp. 286–305, contains the fullest account of Henry's personal characteristics).
Henry VI had imbibed Duke Humphrey's ardent love of letters and liberal patronage of learning. He showed the keenest interest in the universities, and displayed some ingenuity in his efforts to enrich poor foundations from his scanty resources. He lamented the decline of Oxford, and urged the bishops to promote graduates as the best way of encouraging students (Beckington, i. 55). He watched with interest the university of Caen, founded in his boyhood by Bedford (ib. i. 123), and granted a charter in 1438 to Chichele's new foundation of All Souls. But he early concentrated his chief energies on his twofold foundation at Eton and Cambridge, in which he sought to reproduce on a grander scale Wykeham's two colleges of St. Mary at Winchester and Oxford. His chaplain, John Langton, master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, first inspired him with the idea. In 1439 he took the preliminary step of procuring the advowson of the rectory of Eton. In July 1440 he personally inspected Winchester College. On 11 Oct. 1440 he issued the charter of foundation of the ‘King's College of our Lady of Eton beside Windsor.’ The parish church of Eton was by it extended into a college under a provost and fellows, with which were associated a school and an almshouse. Henry made William of Waynflete, then master of Winchester, successively master and provost. For many years he watched the foundation with the closest attention, constantly altering and enlarging his scheme, and gradually developing the school at the expense of the almshouse. He procured both papal and parliamentary sanction for his plans, and mostly employed the revenues of the suppressed alien priories for endowments. He laid himself the foundation-stone of the chapel (Capgrave, De Illustribus Henricis, p. 133), though want of funds made its progress slow. His final plans for the chapel (‘the king's own avyse’) contemplated a building on a colossal scale, but the nave was never begun, and the choir not completed until long after Henry's death. He showed minute care in buying up little scraps of property round the college to allow for its extension. He displayed the keenest interest in his Eton boys, with whom he was brought into constant intercourse through his frequent residence at Windsor. He delighted in giving them presents and good advice. He used to choose the masters with the greatest care, saying that it mattered little if the music in chapel were indifferent so long as his scholars grew in wisdom and piety (Blakman, p. 296).
Henry occupied himself with almost equal zeal in the foundation of the supplementary college at Cambridge. His first charter to the ‘King's College of our Lady and St. Nicholas’ was issued on 12 Feb. 1441. On 2 April 1441 Henry laid the first stone of his college. Here, as at Eton, the original plans for a small college were gradually enlarged. The present vast chapel of King's College, though not completed until long after Henry's time, is the only part of the existing structure which corresponds to his magnificent designs. He laid the first stone of it on 25 July 1446. Between 1445 and 1453 Henry made constant visits to Cambridge to watch over the progress of his foundations, staying mostly at the King's Hall, a college now absorbed in Trinity. The foundation of Queens' College, Cambridge, by Margaret of Anjou (1448) must be attributed mainly to Henry's influence. Henry's university policy forms a connecting link between that of Wykeham and that of Wolsey. His conversion of foreign monasteries into English secular colleges, and his displacement of regular clergy by scholars anticipates an important aspect of the Reformation. The whole scheme and nearly every detail of it is plainly the result of Henry's personal efforts (Lyte, History of Eton College; Willis and Clark, Architectural History of Cambridge; Mullinger, History of the University of Cambridge give the best accounts of Henry's foundations.
